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Posted by Trey Mitchell on 18:22:48 05/27/07
In Reply to: Photo of Arctic Tern (not kayaks) posted by Elsa
Me being no expert, I don't know how much weight my opinion will hold, but I think the photos are in conclusive. The do however provide evidence leaning towards Arctic Tern. After reading about both Common and Arctic Tern differences, looking at many photos of each and recalling my observations of the Common Tern I observed at Cutler Wetland a year or so ago I believe the bill is short enough to be an Arctic. The bill on Common tern is long and slender in all the photos I used for comparison. In photos the bill of the Arctic was short but not overly short. Toes visual observation as reported to me this morning let me know that the bill was definitely small compared to terns we commonly see here in Florida as well as the bird having extremely small legs. All of the photos I used for comparison showed much longer legs on Common Terns than what is in photos taken of the bird in question. The Common tern has normal length legs for terns its size, the bird Toe described and the photos show very short legs.
The carpel bar in the photos of the bird in question appear to have a bit more contrast than they might in different light and/or with better optics. Even with the higher contrast the images taken this morning seem to be more consistent with Arctic Tern than Common Tern when comparing to the photos others have taken at the same life stage.
The only thing in the photos that give opportunity to call it a Common in my opinion is the short tail. But it is obvious that the tail is either extremely weathered or is missing feathers because even Common Tern tails are supposed to be at least as long at the wing tips when folded. But this isn t the case in the photos of the bird in question.
So the photo is inconclusive by them self, but along with Toe s initial observation visually, I would say it is very likely the bird is an Arctic Tern and it would be hard to make it into a Common Tern.
But who am I...
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